On the night he was betrayed

How knowing we are not alone gives us hope

I read The Chronicles of Narnia as a child. I was thrilled at Aslan, broken at his sacrifice in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, convicted at Eustace’s outcome in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and wished I were part of the Pevensie family. This summer I am rereading some of the books with the teenagers in our church youth group, and I didn’t expect to be as affected as I was when I read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe again. Some of the more famous passages, such as when Mrs. Beaver tells the children that Aslan isn’t safe, but he’s good, still pierced my heart. Yet I was surprised to find that the passage that made me cry was near the beginning of the book, before all of the children have even made it to Narnia.

At this point in the story, Lucy has gone to Narnia, met Mr. Tumnus, and come back. She has told her siblings about Narnia, but they don’t believe her. Then one day, while playing hide-and-seek, both Lucy and Edmund end up in Narnia. They get separated. While Luc…